agora startup house

Agora Startup House offers a rich program to accelerate and facilitate the growth of your venture while you are still at school. The program runs from August to May in parallel to UC Berkeley schedule.

While other incubator and accelerator programs (Y-Combinator, 500 Startups, etc.) require full-time dedication during 3-4 months, Agora's program stretches this into the 9-month academic year to accommodate your busy college schedule. The intent is to provide entrepreneurs with the best of both worlds. One can continue their studies while working on the launch of their venture, with the help of all the incubator services provided in house.

The organization's goal is to make Downtown Berkeley -- a commercial area that is walking distance to the Cal campus -- a thriving center for technology-oriented startups and established firms, investors, entrepreneurs and supporting businesses.

Kickstarter

Kickstarter is a global crowdfunding platform with a mission to help bring creative projects to life. Kickstarter has received over $1 billion in pledges from 5.7 million donors to fund 135,000 projects, which include films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, and food-related projects.

People who back Kickstarter projects are offered tangible rewards and special experiences in exchange for their pledges.

kiva zip

Since its launch in 2005, Kiva’s mission has been to alleviate poverty by connecting people through microlending. By working with a global network of microfinance institutions (MFIs), Kiva.org has enabled people like you to make over $340 million in loans to over 850,000 borrowers around the world, with a nearly 99% repayment rate, as of August 2012.

Kiva Zip is testing new ways of realizing this mission with the goal of expanding our reach to underserved populations by using new technologies that also drive down costs to the borrower. Kiva Zip is excited to partner with University Incubator to extend 0%-interest loans to passionate student entrepreneurs.

INDIEGOGO

Indiegogo is an international crowdfunding site headquartered in San Francisco, California. The site was founded in 2008 and was one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows people to solicit funds for an idea, charity or start-up business. Indiegogo's mission is to empower anyone that has an idea to be able to raise the funds and amplify their goal. Nine million people from all around the world visit the site on a monthly basis.

The site runs on a rewards-based system, meaning donors, investors, or customers who are willing to order a project or a product can donate and receive a gift rather than an equity stake in the company.